Some reservations concerning the judicialization of peace

In their recent article, The Judicialization of Peace, Courtney Hillebrecht and Alexandra Huneeus, with the collaboration of Sandra Borda, made an impressive contribution to the discussion of the role of international courts in domestic politics. This Comment engages in this conversation about the role of international tribunals in Colombia’s peace process, challenging some of the views presented by the authors, and suggesting some alternatives to the authors’ approach. In particular, the Comment objects to the way in which they understand the working of international tribunals, with the help of a theory of democracy that significantly differs from the one the authors seem to be assuming in their article.Fil: Gargarella, Roberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentin

Grafting Social Rights Onto Hostile Constitutions

An old metaphor used to understand legal reforms describes current law as a large and tranquil lake, and legal reforms as leaves that fall onto that lake. These reforms, like leaves, rest atop the existing law (the peaceful lake) and seem, at first, to be alien to it. For a long time, the new law and the old seem like distinct bodies and each maintains its own identity. Similarly, the leaves float on the lake, unharmed, as though they have not realized their contact with the lake. However, time passes and, little by little, the makeup of the new law changes—the leaves give in—and the interior architecture of the reform begins to lose strength. Little by little, reforms that seemed like foreign bodies to the old law begin to modify their texture to resemble that of the law on which they rest. Time passes and the reforms, like damp leaves, no longer appear to be distinct bodies. Now, the old law and the new, just like the lake and the fallen leaves, create one body. However, are these images really appropriate for thinking about the links that are created, slowly, between old and new laws? A cursory look at this metaphor suggests a somewhat quick and nonconfrontational adaptation between the established body and the newly arrived one. The metaphor suggests that it is just a matter of time until the process ends happily, with the smooth integration of one part with the other, after both have given in and abandoned their initial resistance. However enticing this view of the way links form between current and new laws may be, a critical look at the process suggests different results.Fil: Gargarella, Roberto. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Democratic dialogue, multiculturalism and “public wrongs”

In this work, I challenge some of the ideas presented by Antony Duff’s in his book The Realm of Criminal Law and, more particularly, his approach to the idea of “public wrongs.” I claim that his views on the subject unjustifiably put into question some shared ideas about what it means to live in a democratic and multicultural society. More particularly, I maintain that, in multicultural societies, we define the basic elements of our identities in dialogue with different and “significant others,” which –I submit- makes it difficult to identify public wrongs that are –in his words- “clearly inconsistent with… any remotely plausible conception of civil order”. In my opinion, many of the problems that I find in his views originate in Duff’s implausible understanding of democracy: the “voice of the community” –I claim– can and should only be expressed by the community itself, through an ongoing and unending collective conversation.Fil: Gargarella, Roberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Grafting Social Rights Onto Hostile Constitutions

An old metaphor used to understand legal reforms describes current law as a large and tranquil lake, and legal reforms as leaves that fall onto that lake. These reforms, like leaves, rest atop the existing law (the peaceful lake) and seem, at first, to be alien to it. For a long time, the new law and the old seem like distinct bodies and each maintains its own identity. Similarly, the leaves float on the lake, unharmed, as though they have not realized their contact with the lake. However, time passes and, little by little, the makeup of the new law changes—the leaves give in—and the interior architecture of the reform begins to lose strength. Little by little, reforms that seemed like foreign bodies to the old law begin to modify their texture to resemble that of the law on which they rest. Time passes and the reforms, like damp leaves, no longer appear to be distinct bodies. Now, the old law and the new, just like the lake and the fallen leaves, create one body. However, are these images really appropriate for thinking about the links that are created, slowly, between old and new laws? A cursory look at this metaphor suggests a somewhat quick and nonconfrontational adaptation between the established body and the newly arrived one. The metaphor suggests that it is just a matter of time until the process ends happily, with the smooth integration of one part with the other, after both have given in and abandoned their initial resistance. However enticing this view of the way links form between current and new laws may be, a critical look at the process suggests different results.Fil: Gargarella, Roberto. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Latin American Constitutionalism: Social Rights and the “Engine Room” of the Constitution

Roberto Gargarella surveys the landscape of Latin American Constitutionalism from 1810 to 2010, with particular emphasis on efforts in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries to enhance protections of multiculturalism and human rights. Gargarella begins by surveying the founding period of Latin American constitutionalism, a period marked by compromise between liberals and conservatives. He proceeds to discuss the increasing incorporation of social rights—primarily economic and labor rights—during the early twentieth century. Gargarella then discusses a final wave of reforms, which introduced increasing human rights protections in the latter half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. Gargarella concludes that the latest wave of reforms did not go far enough in advancing human rights because the reforms failed to reach what Gargarella calls the engine room of the constitution. The engine room consists of the power-granting provisions of constitution that determine the relative authority of governmental actors. Gargarella contends that the enshrinement of several additional rights in Latin American constitutions is undermined by a failure to reorganize power structures so as to ensure that these new rights will be enforced

El constitucionalismo según John Rawls

El término democracia se encuentra completamente ausente del famoso libro de John Rawls, Teoría de la justicia. En Liberalismo político, en cambio, Rawls discute varios de los muchos temas sobre los que el concepto de democracia nos invita a reflexionar

30 años de derechos humanos en la Argentina (1983-2013)

En este breve texto voy a ocuparme de tres cuestiones relacionadas con la trayectoria de los derechos humanos en los últimos 30 años en Argentina. En primer lugar, haré algunas reflexiones sobre el modo en que los derechos humanos volvieron a ocupar un lugar central en la vida pública local y regional -y el modo en que fueron incorporados en el marco constitucional existente- luego del fin de la dictadura militar. En segundo lugar, haré referencia a un aspecto particular de la política de los derechos humanos de especial importancia para la historia del país: los juicios seguidos contra los responsables de los bárbaros crímenes cometidos por la dictadura militar argentina, desde 1976 hasta 1983. Finalmente, aludiré resumidamente al recorrido y evolución de los derechos civiles, políticos, económicos y sociales durante estos 30 años. Salvo en los casos en que especifique otra definición al respecto, aludiré, con la idea de derechos humanos, al amplio plexo de derechos que se considera inherente a cada persona –y necesario para que cada uno alcance una vida digna– por su sola condición de humanidad.Fil: Gargarella, Roberto. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Law and punishment: from criminal injustice to social justice

En el trabajo se argumenta que en situaciones de profunda desigualdad e injusticia social, el Estado pierde autoridad para seguir ejerciendo su poder coercitivo en materia penal. Se argumenta a favor de que en situaciones tales se examine el poder coercitivo del Estado con una presunción negativa en cuanto a la validez del uso del mismo, y en la medida en que las injusticias señaladas se prolonguen en el tiempo.The main idea of the article is that in situations of profound inequality and social injustice, the State’s authority to exercise its coercive powers in the area of Criminal Law is undermined. The author suggests examining the State’s coercive capacities with a negative presumption, assuming that the State in principle lacks those powers, as far as the situations of deep social injustice remained basically unmodified

Constituent power in a “community of equals”

In this article, I use an ideal example related to what I call “a community of equals” to explore the difficult problems involved in the idea of constituent power. After presenting my version of this “egalitarian community,” I discuss some theoretical controversies that have emerged around the same matter, focusing on the work of Bruce Ackerman, Joel Colón-Ríos, Yaniv Roznai, and more particularly, Andrew Arato. I argue that discussions about constituent power should neither remain confined within the old paradigm of “sovereign constitution-making,” nor become exclusively studied under the alternative paradigm of “post-sovereign constitutionmaking.” Constitutionalism needs to recover its democratic character if it wants to keep its egalitarian promise intact.Ustavodajna oblast v »skupnosti enakovrednih«. Izhajajoč iz idealnega primera, povezanega z »skupnostjo enakovrednih«, avtor v tem besedilu razišče probleme, povezane z idejo ustavodajne oblasti. Najprej predstavi svojo različico te »egalitarne skupnosti«, nato pa razpravlja o nekaterih teoretičnih polemikah, ki so se razvile okoli problema ustavodajne oblasti. Pri tem se osredotoči na dela Brucea Ackermana, Joela Colón-Ríosa, Yaniva Roznaija ter še posebej Andrewa Arata. Trdi, da razprave o ustavodajni oblasti ne bi smele ostati ujete v staro paradigmo »suverenega ustavotvorja«, prav tako pa ne smejo postati izključno del alternativne paradigme »post-suverenega ustavotvorja«. Namesto tega avtor zatrjuje, da mora ustavništvo ponovno najti svoj demokratični značaj, če naj obdrži obljubo egalitarnosti.Fil: Gargarella, Roberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella; Argentin